ChrisT hater: My first "pro" race

I may or may not have done some of the following:

Things that are not "pro":
-going out drinking late with your buddies when you have a big race coming up
-eating a whole jar of cookie butter in under 5 days
-joking on the line about shortening the laps from 35 to 20
-throwing up (just a lil bit) in your mouth 6 laps into a race

Things that are "pro":
-skinsuits at crits (*see Jennifer Purcell of Tibco)
-cornering without breaking for dear life
- LVG

It's the end of August. It's already starting to get cold. The season is over.  I'm just going to say that I'm not happy about this. Everyone was saying the season was over the beginning of August and I've tried to stay excited, but once again I go up to ChrisT hater half heartedly.

Ryan and I drove up there for 3.5 hrs and I decided I better make the best of this trip. He told me that I was buying dinner with my winnings (assuming that I could at least beat 4 girls with it paying 25 deep and there are 29 reg'd) and then five minutes later was asking for my check book because he had no cash to reg himself. What a guy. Unfortunately, there was a TON of traffic on 81 turning a two lane highway to one, which turned me from calm to cray in .005 seconds flat. Luckily, Ryan made it to his race with about 50 mins to register, kit up, switch out wheels/brake pads, and warm up (luckily he had his bike bitch there to change out his wheels/brakes).

I spent the next couple hours trying to set up my space and relax. Which wasn't happening. I got a shitty 20 minute warmup in and had nothing to eat besides a bar prior to my race (lack of nutrition, also not pro). Then I get to the line early and ask another rider, "so how many laps?" She replied, "oh it's 35."

35 times up that hill? Really?

Well, I've got a compact so I wasn't that worried, but 35 laps of anything is more than I've ever done in a crit. The hill didn't end up being the worst part of this race. It was actually at the top where people would bunch up. I thought the inside was bad and then got chopped on the outside, which then you'd have to gun it out after hitting your brakes. The downhill stretch was worse than the uphill. Go figure. After lap 6, I wanted out and threw up a little when we averaged over 27mph.

Once I calmed down and stopped watching the counter (sorta), things were ok but I just wasn't committing. Tried to stay positive and had great positioning toward the end once things settled down...and then someone just crashed out right before my front wheel with three laps to go. Awesome. I stayed upright and blew about 5 matches trying to catch the group in front of us (who I think was sprinting at the time for a preme on top of it). Luckily, they slowed down and I tried to recover but there is only so much PSA you can give yourself after all that.

The last lap was a blur, but I was in the top ten going up that damn hill and then all of a sudden that cluster stuff happened again at the top. If you arent in the top 5 out of the last turn of this course...well, sayonara.

My goal was to be in the top 15 for my first "pro" race and I was 15th. Mission accomplished.

End of season? Well...not quite yet. Stay tuned.